This invention relates generally to vehicle safety devices and, more particularly, to a car seat occupancy alert system for first alerting a driver to retrieve a child from a vehicle car seat upon switching off the vehicle's engine and then to alerting the broader public around the vehicle that a child has been left in the car.
The news reports about children left in hot cars are tragic and too frequent. With an increasing frequency, parents sometimes forget that their infant or toddler is strapped into a rear seat car seat when they park and leave their vehicle. Specifically, a parent may forget to drop the child off at daycare and go on to work—leaving the infant in a hot car with the windows rolled up. Or, a parent may intentionally or unintentionally leave their young child in the car seat while they run into a store to purchase some items. The car becomes too hot and the child suffers harm or even death. Unfortunately, there have also been situations when a parent has allegedly intentionally left an infant in a hot car—leading to a tragic death.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a child car seat occupancy alert system that first provides a gentle visual reminder to a driver almost immediately following shutting of the engine to retrieve a child from a rear seat infant car seat. Further, it would be desirable to have a child car seat occupancy alert system that follows the gentle visual reminder with a more vigorous and public audio and visual alarm if the child has not been removed after a predetermined amount of time. In addition, it would be desirable to have a child car seat occupancy alert system that includes an interrupt switch that enables a driver to proactively add additional time to the system to enable him to accomplish brief tasks with the engine turned off without the alarms activating, e.g. pumping gas.